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Smutty Smiff (born 5 July 1959 in East London, England), also known as Stephen Dennis Smith, is a British musician, one of the founding members of rockabilly punk band Levi and the Rockats, discovered by Leee Black Childers, tour manager of David Bowie, Iggy Pop and the Stooges.
In 1977, Childers had just finished the Anarchy tour with Sex Pistols, the Clash, Siouxsie and the Banshees and Johnny Thunders and the Heartbreakers. After the tour was over, Levi Dexter met Childers at a rockabilly concert in London. Childers decided to start a fresh project. Dexter and Smutty Smiff decided to form a band together, even though Smiff had no musical training. One week later, Childers purchased a double bass for Smiff and a first gig was booked in Max's Kansas City. [1]
At about same time, when the band was accepted by local artists, musicians and photographers, Smiff became a model and a friend to photographers such as Andy Warhol, Mick Rock, Bob Gruen, Janette Beckman, and Robert Mapplethorpe . He did some runway shows for Betsey Johnson and Stephen Sprouse. He also did some photo sessions for the German and Italian editions of Vogue . About his experiences with Warhol and The Factory, Smiff talks in his upcoming book Smutty: The Only Essex Boy In Warhol's Factory. [2] He also released one sold-out book called Kats, Tats, Cars and Creepers [3] [4] as well as co-writing two songs for the John Travolta movie, the General's Daughter 's soundtrack, [5] and appeared in Where the Boys Are .
He toured with The Rockats, opening for Tina Turner, the Clash, David Bowie, Kiss, the Pretenders, Bob Dylan, the Go-Go's, Ramones, Talking Heads, and Joan Jett among others.
In 1979, Dexter decided to quit the band and go solo after a gig at the Whisky a Go Go. Smiff decided at the time to continue with the Rockats with Dibbs Preston as lead singer. After relocating to New York, The Rockats signed with Chris Blackwell and released the album Rockats: Live at the Ritz, with an album cover shot by Mick Rock. Introductions to the album were made by Billy Idol.
Following the release of The Rockats' biggest hit "Make That Move" in 1984, after four months of rehab, Smiff relocated from Arizona to California and formed the Havalinas with Tim Scott McConnell. Their song "High Hopes" was covered by Bruce Springsteen, who in 2014 named his entire album High Hopes .
Smutty Smiff lives in Reykjavík, Iceland, where he works at a homeless shelter and is a radio host in a rock radio station. [6] He is married to Katrin Rosa Stefansdottir and has two young boys. [7]
Smutty's fiberglass upright bass, with custom pin striping and his name written across the lower bout, was stolen along with the rest of the Rockats' gear in 1982. In 2021, it was located in a pawn shop in New Jersey. The story of bass was featured in a story in The New York Times. [8] Days after the story of the stolen bass was published, it was returned to Smutty. [9]
The Cramps were an American rock band formed in 1976 and active until 2006. The band split after the death of lead singer Lux Interior in 2009. Their line-up rotated frequently during their existence, with the husband-and-wife duo of Interior and lead guitarist and occasional bass guitarist Poison Ivy comprising the only ever-present members. The addition of guitarist Bryan Gregory and drummer Pam Balam resulted in the first complete lineup in April 1976.
Stray Cats are an American rockabilly band formed in 1979 by guitarist and vocalist Brian Setzer, double bassist Lee Rocker, and drummer Slim Jim Phantom in the Long Island town of Massapequa, New York. The group had numerous hit singles in the UK, Australia, Canada, and the U.S. including "Stray Cat Strut", "(She's) Sexy + 17", "Look at That Cadillac", "I Won't Stand in Your Way", "Bring It Back Again", and "Rock This Town", which the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame has listed as one of the songs that shaped rock and roll.
The Cars were an American rock band formed in Boston in 1977. Emerging from the new wave scene in the late 1970s, it consisted of Elliot Easton, Greg Hawkes (keyboards), Ric Ocasek, Benjamin Orr, and David Robinson (drums). Ocasek and Orr shared lead vocals, and Ocasek was the band's principal songwriter.
Psychobilly is a rock music fusion genre that mixes elements of rockabilly and punk rock. It's been defined as "loud frantic rockabilly music", it has also been said that it "takes the traditional countrified rock style known as rockabilly, ramp[ing] up its speed to a sweaty pace, and combin[ing] it with punk rock and imagery lifted from horror films and late-night sci-fi schlock,... [creating a] gritty honky tonk punk rock." Dark imagery is also central to an offshoot of psychobilly known as gothabilly.
The Heartbreakers, sometimes referred to as Johnny Thunders' Heartbreakers, were an American punk rock band formed in New York City in 1975. The band spearheaded the first wave of punk rock.
Anthony Edward Visconti is an American record producer, musician and singer. Since the late 1960s, he has worked with an array of performers. His first hit single was T. Rex's "Ride a White Swan" in 1970, the first of many hits in collaboration with Marc Bolan. Visconti's lengthiest involvement was with David Bowie: intermittently from the production and arrangement of Bowie's 1968 single "In the Heat of the Morning" / "London Bye Ta-Ta" to his final album Blackstar in 2016, Visconti produced and occasionally performed on many of Bowie's albums. Visconti's work on Blackstar was cited in its Grammy Award for Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical and his production of Angelique Kidjo's Djin Djin was cited in its Grammy Award for Best Contemporary World Music Album.
The Latino Rockabilly War was a band most notable for backing The Clash frontman Joe Strummer on one album. With Strummer, the Latino Rockabilly War created the album Earthquake Weather, released through Epic Records. The album was well received by critics, but did not sell well and Joe Strummer lost his deal with Epic. Led by Strummer, they also contributed five songs to the soundtrack for the movie Permanent Record, which featured a young Keanu Reeves: "Trash City", "Baby the Trans", "Nothin' 'bout Nothin", "Nefertiti Rock", and the instrumental "Theme from Permanent Record".
Douglas Alan Yule is an American musician and singer, most notable for being a member of the Velvet Underground from 1968 to 1973.
"Walk on the Wild Side" is a song by Lou Reed from his second solo album, Transformer (1972). It was produced by David Bowie and Mick Ronson and released as a double A-side with "Perfect Day". Known as a counterculture anthem, the song received wide radio coverage and became Reed's biggest hit and signature song while touching on topics considered taboo at the time, such as transgender people, drugs, male prostitution, and oral sex.
Live at Max's Kansas City is a live album by the Velvet Underground recorded at the famous nightclub and restaurant at 213 Park Avenue South in New York City. It was originally released on May 30, 1972, by Cotillion, a subsidiary label of Atlantic Records.
The Polecats are an English rockabilly band formed at the end of the 1970s.
Danny Fields is an American music manager, publicist, journalist and author. As a music industry executive from the 1960s to the 1980s, he was one of the most influential figures in the history of punk rock. He signed and managed Iggy and the Stooges, signed the MC5 and managed the Ramones, and worked in various roles with Jim Morrison, the Velvet Underground and the Modern Lovers. In 2014 The New York Times said, "You could make a convincing case that without Danny Fields, punk rock would not have happened."
Darrel Higham is an English rockabilly guitarist who performs with Kat Men. He was previously married to Imelda May and performed in her band.
The Hours Tour was a small-scale promotional concert tour by David Bowie comprising a handful of live performances and numerous television appearances in support of the album Hours in late 1999. Several live songs from the tour were included as b-sides to singles from the album, and concert recordings from the tour were released in 2020 as Something in the Air and in 2021 with David Bowie At The Kit Kat Klub .
"Andy Warhol" is a song written by English singer-songwriter David Bowie in 1971 for the album Hunky Dory. It is an acoustic song about one of Bowie's early artist inspirations, the American pop artist Andy Warhol.
The Velvet Underground was an American rock band formed in New York City in 1964. The original line-up consisted of singer/guitarist Lou Reed, multi-instrumentalist John Cale, guitarist Sterling Morrison, and drummer Angus MacLise. MacLise was replaced by Moe Tucker in 1965, who played on most of the band's recordings. Their integration of rock and the avant-garde achieved little commercial success during the group's existence, but they are now recognized as one of the most influential bands in rock, underground, experimental, and alternative music. The group's provocative subject matter, musical experiments, and often nihilistic attitudes also proved influential in the development of punk rock and new wave music.
Levi and the Rockats are a British rockabilly revival band originally from Essex but currently based in New York City. They are recognised as one of the pioneering neo-rockabilly groups of the 1980s.
The Havalinas are an American gypsy-folk-rock band from California, formed in 1989 in Los Angeles by Tim Scott McConnell and Stephen Dennis Smith - former bandmates in Levi and the Rockats, a punk-styled rockabilly group. Smiff was coming back from Arizona after four months of rehab to find his soul brother - Tim - quitting the music business and working as a doorman at gay bars and cleaning people's homes.
Curt Weiss, is an American writer, television producer, and, under the name Lewis King, musician. His writing has appeared in Classic Drummer magazine, and as author of the 2017 book Stranded in the Jungle: Jerry Nolan’s Wild Ride. As a musician he has drummed with the Rockats and Beat Rodeo and with members of Holly and the Italians and the Modern Lovers.
Ruby Lynn Reyner is an American singer, songwriter, musical playwright and actress known as the star of the Playhouse of the Ridiculous and associated as the leader of the Glitter Rock /Glam Rock band Ruby and the Rednecks in New York City. She and her band performed on the New York Club circuit such as Max's Kansas City and CBGB's during the 1970s]. Reyner also did film starring in Heaven Wants Out by director Robert Feinberg in 1970 and made several appearances in Andy Warhol's productions.
